regestration deadline extended

I think I said the deadline would be May 1, but I think if you are like me you have been pretty busy and put it at the back of your mind so I'm extending the deadline until May 15.  That should still give me plenty of time to order supplies.  I have been busy spring cleaning and then, I think because it is still winter weather here in Minnesota, I also decided to completely rearrange the furniture in a handful of rooms in my house.  It's consumed my days, but I'm getting things put back together again and looking forward to some fun classes this June. :-)

Registration should now be working

Apparently there was a little glitch in registering, but my sister fixed for me. It should be up and ready to go now. If doesn't work please let me know and leave me a comment. Thanks!

The Gardner Museum news

Here's some art theft news you might find interesting if you are getting excited for our summer art lessons. I'm going to regret not writing more about the Gardner Museum, but I'm short on time today. I wanted to add this link and the video is better than what I would write anyway. :-) http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/03/18/thieves-identified-gardner-museum-theft-rembrandt-and-vermeer-paintings/VmSiOGRgKbRakLJr1wCA3I/story.html

Summer 2013 Art lessons

I finished typing up the schedule and descriptions for this summer's art lessons.  You can view it by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.  I'm hoping soon to get the registration page up, but at least with this you can get it on your calendar.  The theme this time is:
Art:  Stolen, Escaped, Recovered
I have a handful of fun surprises  for this art show ;-)  It should be a lot of fun.  We'll also be doing movies again so start thinking about what you're going to make.  A full description is also on the 2013 tab. 
I'm planning on doing a few of the projects ahead so I can post pictures of what to expect.

Fake or Fortune...

I happened to turn on the tv and find this show a couple of weeks ago. It is an hour long. It goes perfect with this summer's art lessons theme.  I'm working on finalizing my lesson plan and the schedule and hoping to post it soon.

Sneak peak at summer 2013 art lessons!

I am already getting some ideas for next summer.  :-)  I'm pretty super excited about this one so I'm going to give you some hints.
Here's my inspiration:
First, this song:

Then I discovered this book (picture links to Amazon):

Oddly the day I was researching for my theme I've been mulling over in my head for some time there was a huge museum break-in !  Yikes!  I have no alibi.  I was at home; alone; looking up stolen art on Wikipedia.  My husband enjoys teasing me about that one.  It wasn't me, I wasn't doing that kind of research!   ;-) There was another museum heist on Sunday. Crazy. 
I would like to do movies again so if this is sparking your imagination like it is mine, please feel free to get a head start. Same rules as last time:  5 minutes or less, family friendly, must have the theme somehow somewhere included in the movie if even only for a brief moment. This time:

 Art stolen, escaped, or rescued.

This is going to be so much fun!  I'm so super excited :-)

Traveling Through Time by Bicycle- 2000's (today) Steampunk inspired Artist Trading Cards

For the "today" of our time travel journey I chose to do Steampunk and artist trading cards since ATC's are a fairly recent trend.  Steampunk just seems to be the logical choice for a week of time travel, don't you think?  Steampunk is kind of a science fiction history mix; basically taking something modern or from "today" and making it look like it came from the steam engine era.  It's also a literary movement influenced by the works of H.G. Wells.  Artist Trading Cards are baseball card size pieces of art that you can trade with friends.
We put the two together and for the first card we had to draw an invention for a time machine.  Then we drew whatever we wanted on other ones.  I had the students stick to drawing supplies- markers, colored pencils, pastels, charcoal pencils.
You can buy trading card size paper or you can cut  your paper into 21/2" X 31/2".  It's a great way to use scraps of paper you might have (since art paper is not sold the same size as common photo picture frames you might have some occasional trimmings).
You can buy the pocket pages anywhere baseball cards or Pokemon cards or anywhere collector cards are sold.  I found mine at Target in the same section as the cards and puzzles.   This was fun and some kids made enough to fill a whole pocket page.  Sadly, not a whole page of inventions; I loved seeing their ideas for inventions and time machines.
Don't forget you can trade them with your friends!  :-)